"The magic here isn't really UFOs but rather the kind that allows the right people to find each other. Harper capably creates fully rounded portraits of her believable, scarred, sometimes-insecure, entirely lovable characters." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Is it really possible to recognize your soulmate at age sixteen? ...We've loved the Savoies... through pyrotechnics, passion, downright rapture, misfires, mishaps, and tragedy... but never before have we seen them in their guileless innocence... Welcome to adulthood, kids. It can burn with white heat, and it's always fatal." (Goodreads)

FAINT GLOW

It's not here yet, thank God, but it's coming up fast. And all I can think about is the laundry and vacuuming I haven't done.

College kids on spring break are already arriving seven to a subcompact with Illinois or Pennsylvania license plates, stopping just off the exit ramps to get out and stretch and gawk: We made it! This is really New Or-LEENZ! We're REALLY HERE! (Quick, get a cellphone picture of Staci and me in front of this palm tree!) Read More

Okay, I'm a slob and a klutz--anybody who knows me well will confirm this. But the two came together a few nights ago in a perfect storm (hate that cliche, but it is what it is) of coordinated bad character and brought me down onto my own kitchen floor like a stunned steer.

Three dignified old people lived up the highway from us when I was growing up, siblings, none of them married and all of them strong as mules. Our car would pass their homestead and my father or mother would wave at one of them working in his vegetable garden or another of them out Read More

Sometimes I become afraid that you will someday write about me, then afraid that you won't. If you remember me well enough deciding I'm worth a mention, I can only hope you will handle me with as loving hands as you have done here. I gather this is literally a true story, although I recall you have a gift for fiction.

Touched a nerve here, Ms. Harper, not sure which one, not ready for the nephew going to Afghanistan. My son is overseas. I checked out your blog because girlfriend says you're funny. You pretty much are, but more besides. Thanks.

Another fine Sunday, clear and sunny, and the church people next door are singing their hearts out. So are the blue jays in the elm branches overhead, and although they're better known for that harsh shrieking they more often make, it seems that when the mood is right that they can pour out a Read More

I'm currently reading your book, The Worst Day of My Life, So Far, and enjoying it...if you can enjoy Alzheimer's and middle age and insecurity.<br><br>Your post today? Thank you for reminding me to be grateful for the positive I do have in my life, and laughing at the rest.<br><br>Ain't life grand, indeed?

Okay, I realize that disaster may be imminent, with this mug of hot coffee at my elbow and cat Casey having that wild-eyed look about him saying he desperately needs to do something crazy. Maggie twitches her tail against my thigh, watching Casey with intense disapproval. And there's this vulnerable laptop on my knees.

Yep, it's that time again. The big Sharing, where we all come together over snack foods that'll kill us to watch the culmination of the NFL season. It seems I can't write a sentence like that without sounding snide, but actually I'm a serious football fan and will certainly be watching. I always do Read More

I get you on this one. It was a relief to just watch the Super Bowl without feeling like you are going to throw up. Last year, I didn't sleep the night before and by the time the coin was tossed, I was a nervous wreck. I was trying so hard to make my brain remember every play, that I think I really didn't enjoy any of the game. But I would be willing to go through all of it again, if we could just go back and win next year.

When I was a child, I supposed that animals didn't grow old in the way of humans. Cats and dogs just hung around our house for years and then died. Well, we lived on a farm and what with automobiles out on the highway and other health hazards, outdoor pets didn't always reach their Read More

Beautiful, elegaic. What I too feel in my boomer bones on this snowy day. Thanks for saying what I feel, M. A. I too was born in SC. Sorry about Jonsey.

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Elaine Hampton-Grice

February 10, 2011 8:15 AM EST

Oh Annette, that is beautiful, you are such a kind person. Thanks so my much for thinking of my Jonsey, My Pup, the love of my life and my best friend for 36 years. <br>Love Jonsey's wife Venus and daughter Belle

If you needed the slightest justification for feeling uneasy, you couldn't ask for a better day.

That tremendous winter storm currently cutting the heart out of the midwest is bringing high winds down here with the possibility of tornados. Oh goody. I keep telling myself that the one back in 2007 kind of innoculated this Read More